Unexciting Treatment of an Interesting Concept: Ikemen Domoyo Meshi Wo Kue Review

The Concept

Adapted from the manga of the same name, Ikemen Domoyo Meshi wo Kue tells the story of a twenty eight-year-old woman, Yoshimi, who works as the editor of a magazine. She is into ikemen – a Japanese portmanteau neologism for beautiful men in popular culture – and often fantasizes about anime characters. She has almost zero appetite and is a small eater, until one day she realizes that she has an appetite while dining with beautiful men. This makes her strangely different. But, the series is an example of unexciting treatment of a interesting concept.

Now, the premise is new and interesting. But the material does not fit well with a TV series mainly because of the treatment of the material. The narration goes as it would be in a manga or perhaps it looks more like a manga than a series, with changes in only the medium and technological aspects. It would have been better off as a manga.

The Unexciting Treatment

Every character talks like an anime character and are almost like caricatures. The bright white coloring aggravates what I would like to call ‘animeness’ of the series. The series looks like a typical Japanese drama where everything is a bit dramatic and the protagonist is the caricature of a fangirl. She hides behind her friend when she does something embarrassing. She drools over an ikemen (beautiful man). It is almost annoying to watch an adult woman acting cute and childish.

In a scene where she stands in front of the chief editor, the camera zooms into her breasts unnecessarily. As if it is the gaze of the editor man. She looks like a mannequin here, mainly because of the lighting and white filter. The scene is executed as a comedy. She does not get offended by his remarks as if she is used to those things and just casually remarks that it is sexual harassment.

Read more herehttps://mydramalist.com/730795-beautiful-guys-eat

The series looks like the manga is directly translated into the canvas of a television. Lazy writing, cheesy dialogues and anime-like acting brings the series further down. In short, there is nothing that holds the series together or that which could make it worth a watch.